MacDonald excited' to be joining Flyers

The Flyers' Adam Hall, right, cuts in on the Islanders' Andrew MacDonald during a game Jan. 20. MacDonald, a newly minted Flyer after a trade Tuesday, said he was excited to join the team. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

PHILADELPHIA — In the aftermath of his first practice with the Flyers Wednesday, Andrew MacDonald called the previous 24 hours “a whirlwind.” The Flyers are a little more interested in what he’s going to be able to do for them over the next 42 days or so.

MacDonald, the puck-moving defenseman from the Islanders, will be counted upon to expedite the Flyers’ main mission down the stretch drive of the regular season and (they hope) forward into the playoffs — stopping the chaos in their defensive zone.

The Flyers Tuesday traded a third-round draft pick in the June draft, a second-rounder in 2015 and minor leaguer Matt Mangene for MacDonald, a pending unrestricted free agent at 27.

“He’s a solid, two-way defenseman in our league,” general manager Paul Holmgren said of MacDonald. “He’s still a young guy and he’ll bring a lot to our team. He’ll make our team better.”

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As for other moves at Wednesday’s trade deadline ... there wasn’t much to get excited about.

About a half-hour prior to the deadline, Holmgren made the anticipated trade of defenseman Andrej Meszaros to the Boston Bruins, getting a a 2014 conditional third-round draft pick in return. Taken as a trading deadline whole then, the Flyers swapped one unrestricted free-agent defender for another, and spent a second-round pick in the swap. The thought is that by replacing offensively minded but defensively flawed Meszaros with MacDonald, they will offer goalie Steve Mason a safer, quieter environment with which to work around his goalie crease.

“He adds skating, puck movement, and he’s a good two-way defenseman,” coach Craig Berube said of MacDonald, who was paired with Luke Schenn Wednesday night against the Washington Capitals. “He leads the league in shot blocks, (and is) an all-around player. Gets back to the puck quick, moves the puck, gets up the ice and he defends well.”

On their crowded blue line, the Flyers need all of that and more. Their level of defensive zone chaos is always unpredictable. Don’t know if MacDonald’s old Islanders partner Mark Streit has filled him in on that just yet.

“Obviously, they’re a really skilled team and a tough team to play against,” MacDonald said of his new club. “They’re physical and they’re good in all facets of the game. So it’s exciting to be able to join this team.”

One other caveat that shouldn’t be and won’t be ignored: The Flyers cleared some valuable cap space in the process. Wiping Meszaros’ $4 million hit off the books and adding MacDonald’s mere $550,000 leaves the Flyers with nearly $6.4 million of cap space. Unless the Flyers have some hidden agenda with an unsigned free agent, the bulk of that money could be used toward re-signing MacDonald prior to the free agency period.

And sooner rather than later.

“We added Andrew with an eye on the future, looking to re-sign him,” Holmgren said. “And in terms of the assets we gave up to acquire Andrew I think we had to look to the future and try to recapture some of that.

“You try to put your team in place in the summertime. If you make an addition at the deadline it’s got to be an upgrade. That’s what we were looking to do this year and I think we’ve done that.”

“It’s such a great team and organization you have to be open to (signing with) a team like this,” MacDonald said. “But right now I’m not thinking about it at all. It’s been kind of a whirlwind. I’m just focused on tonight’s game and we’ll go from there.”

The argument could be made that the Flyers could have added either another scoring wing to give their top line another look, or a third-line forward to take shaky Steve Downie’s place and present the opposition with a very sold four-line look.

Holmgren admitted he’d pondered such possibilities, but in the end said he was never close to making an offer for another forward.

That would include Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler. Holmgren said he only inquired about “the parameters of what (the Canucks) were looking for,” when it came to Kesler. But Holmgren literally laughed at the notion that he was bargaining hard against the Pittsburgh Penguins to try to acquire the top-shelf center.

“Today was just kind of slow,” Holmgren swore. “We didn’t have a lot going on and weren’t really looking to do anything else. I’ve said all along, I like our team. We’ve improved our defense a little bit ... we’re ready to go.

“I like our team. They’re a really together group. They’ve been through a lot together; the poor start, the coaching change, and now they’ve battled back. I think they deserve to stick together and see where they can go with this.”